This is a bit of a rare post for me as most of my posts are technical. I guess it’s a bit of a change in attitude, as a few things (from my personal life) have come to light recently. (and, I thank Richard and Carl for this:) :).

Anyway, I’m sitting in Tokyo/Narita airport waiting to board my final flight home to Seattle. This is after a trip which has brought me over every longitude possible – in only 8 days. It sounds “glamorous” as many people always tell me “how lucky I am that I get to see the world” and while many trips allow me to see some amazing things AND I absolutely LOVE what I do… this trip really wasn’t all that much fun. The long story short is that my Father became very ill where he was vacationing. It really didn’t sound all that good when we heard (which was Wednesday – in London – where Paul and I had just completed a one-day workshop on Database Maintenance on Tuesday). Anyway, we thought that even if he were to make it, we knew he couldn’t do the return travel alone. I was a bit of a basket case and in the short period of time we had to make a decision the only logical one was to get to him to help him get home (and for Paul to help me through it). Fortunately, for me, everyone (Miracle, Paul, Tony Rogerson, Tony’s wife Alex, etc…) were extremely supportive and everyone just said they’d take care of what we left behind in our wake of crazy travels. And… well, that’s where we are now (on our way home). We’re amazingly happy to say that he’s getting his strength back (slowly) and that we’re making our way back home today (which is why we’re in Narita). In the end, we (Paul and I) had to miss the OpenWorld event in Lalandia (to which we were truly looking forward) but I can’t say that we regret the decision in any way.

Having said all of that, we (Miracle, Paul and I) are looking at options to give the OpenWorld attendees something special for our not having been there. We’re looking at options that might include a special LiveMeeting presentation with an open Q&A as well as options for later in the year when both Paul and I are back in Europe (which is at least once or twice more this year).

So, while I’m not so fond of lots of [my] personal [life] posts (I certainly don’t mind other people’s posts :), we hope that you’ll accept our sincerest apologies for missing the event. But - we have to admit – without Paul there, there must have been more beer.

3 Responses to Sometimes life just happens… a sincere apology to the OpenWorld Attendees

Sorry to hear about your bad news, of course you were both missed, but I’d hope anyone would have done the same in your situation, so no need to apologise.. ..glad to hear he’s on the mend..

Openworld was great, the session’s were informative, and the format worked brilliantly – Where else can you chat to experts about sql, and then moments later see who can keep the most beer in their cup whilst going down a water slide.. ..There was much beer throughout, on Saturday there was an uptime experiment between SQL and Oracle, Mark & Luber did SQL proud and challenged well, but apparently the oracle guys came out on top in the end, eventually going to bed around 6am :-)

Very sorry to hear the news, and hope all is well. The OpenWorld event attendees shared the same sentiment either vocally in a group setting or while talking with me personally. Life and Family always come first.

Thanks Ben/James – Yes, family first – for sure. In fact, things are going much better these days…albeit Dad’s in the hospital. Hopefully not for much longer though – and feeling much better with a [relatively] good plan to minimize this from happening again.

As for OW – beer, water slides, all-nighters of geekiness – sounds like last time and will very likely be the case next time… and, we’re both planning to be there for the next one!